News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-03
MYSTERIES OF A DAY.
CURIOUS THINGS WE FIND RE
CORDED IN THE PAPERS.
Perpetual Motion-The Autograph
Fiend-A Railway Intentional
Paris Workman, etc, etc.

Perpetual Motion-The Autograph
Fiend-A Railway Invention-A
Paris Workman, etc, etc.
AMONG the recent railway inventions
which have attracted special attention
is what is termed the anchor brake, to
be used in cases of emergency. The plan
involved in this case is that Of having
an anchor to drop from the rear end of
train and engage with the ties. Pro-
vision for preventing the bending of the
ties, under the strain brought upon
them, might, it is suggested, be devised
as simply as for the aXles; and, by hav-
ing a good, long spring to ease the shock
when the anchor came to bearing, in
addition to the relief which would come
from the draw springs of the entire
train without any expense at all, q train
might easily be brought to stop within
fifteen or twenty feet from an ordinary
passenger speed, if something did not
! give way. A more practical invention,
| perhaps, is that of q car fire eXtinguish-
| er, in case of derailment or collision.
| It consists of tank of water above the
stove, with large pipe extending from
it to the inside of the stove, just above
the fire; trap in the bottom of the
tank is connected by levers with series
| of arms at the bottom of the car, one of
these arms extending under each corner
of each platform, while another extends
| down toward the track; in case, there
fore, of collision, one of the arms I'M
der the platform must be struck, thus
moving the lever, opening the trap, and
instantly deluging the fire with water
or, in case of derailment, one of the arms
hanging down toward the track is struck
and operates the lever.
THERE WAS an exciting political con-
test the other day at Lake City, Fla,
between the liquor men and the temper
ance folks, and the former were in
fair way to carry the election owing
largely to the looks of popular young
citizen. -Four temperance girls deter
mined to capture him, and they did it.
One of them asked him to step behind
the Court House, that she might tell
him a secret, and the others followed
with four chairs. In these the conspi-
rators seated themselves so closely
around the young man that he could not
get out without using force, and, being
too gallant to do this, he was kept
prisoner until the polls closed, and the
temperance people had won the day.
YOUNG Mr. Witherspoon of Birming-
ham, Conn, is the newest inventor who
thinks that he has found the secret of
perpetual motion. His published words
show the state of his mind, if he is
rightly reported. 81 mean to say that
I have invented an engine or motor,
Ill Of
from without, can not only maintain its
own motion indefinitely, or as long as
the material of which it is made lasts,
but can also be applied to all kinds of
machinery, and therefore do external
work. To be more explicit, my machine
means device for creating power or
energy without corresponding expendi-
ture of energy
A PARIS workingman named Barthes
asked his wife to look down well, and
as she did so pushed her in. When
she came to the surface and screamed
for help he let down bucket, and she
clnging to it. drew her up, making her
think he was going to save her. When
nearly to the top he let her drop again
into the well, and, as she still refused
to die, he flung large stones upon her
The neighbors interfered, and one of
them put ladder down and brought
the woman, still alive, up on it, the
husband, meantime, doing every thing
in his power to hinder the rescuers. He
was sentenced to fifteen years penal
servitude.
IT has been calculated that on the av-
erage each man who attains the age of
Il .,
course of his life twenty wagon-loads of
food, solid and liquid. At four tons to
the wagon this would correspond to an
average of about hundred ounces of
food per day, or say some 120 ounces per
day during adult life, and eight ounces
during infancy and youth. Most mod |
ern doctors agree in regarding 100 ounces |
of food per day, corresponding to five |
or six half pints of liquid food and
seven or eight pounds of solid food, as |
in excess of the real daily requirements
of healthy man or woman.
ERAsTUs WIMAN has conceived the
idea of erecting thousand cottages on
Staten Island, ranging in value from
$1,000 to $1,000, to be sold to New
Workers or others for the purpose of |
founding colony, and building up
business for his railroad. On payment |
of a small amount of money Mr.. Wiman |
intends to undertake the building of
house, accepting mortgages for the |
deferred payments and giving to the |
purchaser a sort of life insurance con-
tract by which in the event of his death |
before concluding his payments the |
property shall revert absolutely to his !
legal heirs, free of all debt
THE cholera scare in Sicily is so great
that in some towns the physicians and
chemists took to flight, and had to be
pursued by police and brought back, as
they could not be spared. At Villabota
a postman was shot by mob, who be-
ieved the epidemic was spread through
the letters he delivered. A number of
people who were flying from Palermo to
Menreale were kept from entering by
the inhabitants with guns, and were
little boy of 8 years, driven by hunger,
stabbed to death and his body burned
by some of the villagers.
A FRENCH lieutenant of hussars left
the army to marry a girl who was too
poor to bring him the dowry a woman
has to have to marry a French officer. |
He went to work for $50 month; his |
wife fell i'll, he ran into debt, and final |
ly couldn't get anybody to trust him for
milk, which was the only thing that |
would keep his wife alive. So he stole
some milk, got caught at it, and although |
when arraigned the magistrate let him
go, his wife was just dying when he got
again to her bedside. He waited for
her last sigh, and then lay down by her
side and blew out his brains.
EIGHTEEN hundred men struck in the |
collieries in Durham county, England,
because the prOprietors had recovered
nominal damages in an action against
several men who had quit work without
notice on account of some dispute in
one of the mines. The men would not
pay, and six of them were sent to Jail
in default. The strikers refused to go
back until their comrades were released. |
One night some stranger went to the
Jail and paid the fines of the men, who
were at once set free. The men held
meeting next day and decided to go back
to work.
JOHN BUCKLEY of Meriden, Conn,
caught swapping turtle and took it to
the central telephone Office, where he |
purposed killing it with electricity. He
let tho turtle snap at one end of a
wire, put another wire beneath its |
shell, and turned on the full strength of |
the current. He AYERS that he ''heard |
II